1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for controlling an information processing system, an intermediate service device, an authentication method, and a storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a peripheral device control system in which peripheral devices are connected to information processing apparatuses using various types of interfaces such as USB, Ethernet (registered trademark), wireless LAN, and the like is effectively used in various locations such as homes, offices, and the like. Examples of such a peripheral device include a printer, a copier, a facsimile, a scanner, a digital camera, a multi-function peripheral thereof, and the like.
As an example of such a peripheral device control system that supports printers or multi-function peripherals from among the peripheral devices, a cloud print service called Google Cloud Print (hereinafter abbreviated as “GCP” (registered trademark)) is provided by Google, Inc. By using a cloud print service, a user can activate (utilize) a document-creating application or the like from a personal computer (hereinafter referred to as “PC”) or a mobile device, and print a document on a printer or a multi-function peripheral via Internet. The procedure of printing using GCP is as follows.
(1) A user performs an operation for opening a document using a document-creating application installed on a PC.
(2) In order to print the document on a printer, the user selects the printer by opening a print dialogue and performs an operation for executing printing.
(3) The document-creating application generates a print image as a PDF file.
(4) GCP generates a print job from a print setting value selected by the print dialogue and the PDF file, stores the print job in a print queue assigned to the printer in GCP, and transmits a print job notification to the printer.
(5) Upon receiving the print job notification, the printer acquires the print job, and prints the print image of the PDF file in accordance with the print setting value.
For example, when a printer or a multi-function peripheral is capable of rendering a PDF file, the printer or the multi-function peripheral can perform printing in accordance with the procedure using GCP. However, when an inexpensive printer or an inexpensive multi-function peripheral is incapable of rendering a PDF file, the inexpensive printer or the inexpensive multi-function peripheral cannot print the print image of the PDF file in (5).
In order to perform printing on such an inexpensive printer or an inexpensive multi-function peripheral using GCP, there is an application for a Web service (image conversion service). An image conversion service application converts a PDF file into an image format such as a JPEG file or the like which can be printed by an inexpensive printer or an inexpensive multi-function peripheral. Also, there has been proposed an information processing system in which a PDF file is converted into a JPEG file using the image conversion service application and the JPEG file is printed by an inexpensive printer or an inexpensive multi-function peripheral.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-100340 discloses another technique for providing a Web service for printing. In the print service disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-100340, printing is realized by a printer located at any location using the following method. Such printing is realized by a method for exchanging information about a print reservation, data, and a printable application among print environment in shared services deployed in various locations and presenting a printable print location to a user. With the aid of the print service disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-100340, a user can print on a printer which is located at any remote location.
In the aforementioned peripheral device control system using GCP, a plurality of printers is managed and a Web service for providing a cloud print proxy service for adaptation to GCP (e.g., a Web application for a proxy service) is required.
In the peripheral device control system, a proxy service application processes a print job in cooperation with an image conversion service application. In other words, the image conversion service application converts a PDF file included in a print job issued by GCP into a JPEG file. In this manner, the user can print using an inexpensive printer or an inexpensive multi-function peripheral.
In an information processing system represented by such a peripheral device control system, for example, the Web service applications may be present in a local area network without passing through the Internet. The HTTP POST method or GET method instead of HTTPS may be utilized for communication between the Web application services. In such a case, when a Web service API provided by each of the Web service applications is used between the Web service applications, the frequent communication may occur, resulting in an increase in the traffic on a network. Consequently, the time required for communication between services impacts on the processing times for the entire system. In addition, an excessive load is placed on a specified Web application that receives a call of a Web service API.